The ABS measures business demographics, research and development (R&D), innovation, and critical and emerging technologies among businesses in the United States. The ABS is a joint statistical project between the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Census Bureau.
The ABS combines Census Bureau firm-level collections to reduce respondent burden, increase data quality, and reduce operational costs. The ABS is designed to be adaptive, allowing content to be rotated on and off the survey based on topics of relevance.
Business owner characteristic data collected on the ABS are used by:
R&D, innovation, and technology data collected on the ABS are used by:
Yes, YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW. Title 13, United States Code, Sections 8(b), 131, and 182, and Title 42, United States Code, Sections 1861-76 (U.S. National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended), and Section 505 within the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 authorize this collection. Sections 224 and 225 of Title 13 require your response. The U.S. Census Bureau is required by Section 9 of the same law to keep your information CONFIDENTIAL and can use your responses only to produce statistics. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify your business, organization, or institution. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, your data are protected from cybersecurity risks through screening of the systems that transmit your data.
The U.S. Census Bureau is required by Title 13 United States Code, Section 9, to keep your information confidential and can use your responses only to produce statistics. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify your business, organization, or institution. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, your data are protected from cybersecurity risks through screening of the systems that transmit your data.
To ensure privacy, requests must be submitted online via your Census Bureau account (or refer to your letter for instructions on how to create an account); clicking on "Options" and then 'Send a Message'.
You will be forwarded a data release form to complete and return. You will be notified in 1 - 2 business days if your data is available.
The Census Bureau updates your filing status two to three business days after you submit your data. You may check your filing status by signing into your Census Bureau account, clicking on "Options" and then "Filing Status" or by calling 1-888-824-9954, Monday through Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm, Eastern Time., excluding holidays, and a service representative will assist you.
Provide your best estimate if exact values are not available. Because every company tracks and manages their data differently, we expect companies may have to provide estimates for some questions. Due to the unique nature of your company, your best estimates will still provide useful information to the people who use these data.
If you lost the letter with your company’s authentication code for this survey, please call our toll-free customer help line at 1-888-824-9954, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.
You may obtain a time extension by signing into your Census Bureau account, clicking on "Options" and then "Request Extension.” You can also request an extension by calling our toll-free customer help line at 1-888-824-9954, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Yes. Both are required by law (Title 13, United States Code, Section 224). Although both surveys are designed to integrate and replace several existing surveys, AIES does not collect the detailed research and development innovation, and technology data collected on ABS. ABS is conducted jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).
All companies selected for this survey are required to respond. The first several questions of the survey provide specific reporting instructions for companies that are owned by other companies or that have gone out of business.
If your company is no longer in business, please report only for the portion of 2025 when it was operating.
R&D is planned; creative work aimed at discovering new knowledge or developing new or significantly improved goods and services. This includes a) activities aimed at acquiring new knowledge or understanding without specific immediate commercial applications or uses (basic research); b) activities aimed at solving a specific problem or meeting a specific commercial objective (applied research); and c) systematic use of research and practical experience to produce new or significantly improved goods, services, or processes (development). The term "research and development" does NOT include expenditures for:
R&D may be confused with other activities that are scientific or technological in nature. One way to distinguish R&D from other activities is that R&D involves novelty and the attempt to resolve scientific or technological uncertainty. If the solution to a problem is obvious to someone familiar with the area concerned, then it is not R&D.
This means that many software and website development projects are not R&D. In order for a software development project to be considered R&D, its completion must be dependent on a scientific and/or technological advance, and the aim of the project must be to overcome some scientific/technological hurdle. Developing a new website targeted at a specific market would not be considered R&D if it simply applies existing technology and techniques. However, the application of social networking research to develop a novel algorithm could be considered R&D assuming it involves the resolution of some scientific and/or technological hurdles.
In other areas, such as the social sciences, many activities that are commonly called "research" fall outside this survey's definition of R&D because they employ known techniques in a routine manner to gather information. The goal of these activities is not to advance scientific/technological knowledge. For example, conducting a telephone poll of voters to assess opinions about health care legislation is not R&D.
If you are a survey respondent and you are uncertain as to whether your company's activities should be reported as R&D, please contact us.
No. Some activities that satisfy the IRS criteria for “qualified research” fall outside the scope of this survey’s definition of R&D. IRS regulations issued in January 2004 (TD 9104) abandoned the requirement that qualified research must have the objective of obtaining knowledge that exceeds, expands or refines the common knowledge of skilled professionals in a particular field of science or engineering. Since that time, activities that are “new to the taxpayer” but not necessarily “new to the world” could qualify for the tax credit if other criteria were met. However, for the purpose of this survey the novelty of an R&D project is still important as the survey’s goal is to measure investment in activities intended to “increase the stock of knowledge and devise new applications of available knowledge.”
In general, activities that involve uncertainty and a process of experimentation but do not aim to advance the state of the art in the industry or devise a new or significantly improved product or process should be excluded from R&D questions on this survey. Example 1: An engineering firm applying best practices to resolve technical uncertainties during the design phase of a customer sponsored project may have activities that qualify as research for purposes of the IRS tax credit, but these activities should not be reported as R&D on this survey. Example 2: An engineering firm works to devise a new method for designing earthquake resistant buildings that has never been used before. This activity should be reported as R&D on this survey and would also likely qualify as research for purposes of the IRS tax credit.
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